Imagine fishing with a blindfold and a broken net.

The fish that you are targeting are literally slipping through your nets. And the blindfold prevents you from knowing which fish you’re getting. Or if indeed it is a fish, and not a pile of discarded shoes.

If you are not doing quality data enrichment of your leads & prospects, you are leaving your sales team in a similar predicament.

Each unverified contact is a missed connection. Each email sent to an outdated address is blocking you from adding a prospect to your pipeline.

Precision means having the data about the ICP that will most help you to converting them.

Data Enrichment & quality are make-or-break for Outbound GTM

Let’s imagine we are selling to Acme Corporation, a Fortune 500 business.

Our de-anonymization tool told us that prospects from Acme Corp have visited our website. We reach out to the executives, and initiate a conversation.

We do 2 discovery calls, and see that our solution adds enormous value to the Acme Corp. And we have a healthy ongoing discussion over finer details of integrations & adoption.

We are mostly positive because it seems a very active conversation.

But then, we go to our Revenue intelligence platform. But the platform is flagging a whole lot of concerns.

  1. The prospect has never opened their video in our calls –> low commitment.
  2. The prospect we are talking to is not part of the buying committee - they do not have the necessary influence on the decision process, nor do they seem sufficiently engaged to be a champion.

Clay powers precision-guided GTM strategies

Within this context, Clay offers a robust ecosystem of data enrichment sources, and enables inflow from and outflow to the CRM of enriched data.

Clay’s core offering is the platform where you can upload your leads, and enrich them from multiple data sources.

It is trusted by top GTM teams including OpenAI, Anthropic and Canva. They have 10x’d their revenue in 2022 and then again in 2023, and then 6x’d their revenue in 2024.

Basis this superlative performance, they’ve raised a $40mn raise round for their Series B funding. [1]

The IDE for GTM Engineers

Clay seeks to position themselves as the IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for GTM teams. Or the OS for GTM teams.

Today, GTM teams use multiple tools that do not necessarily talk to each other.

Pipeline management - Contacts & Leads

  1. CRM as system of record for all leads
  2. LinkedIn Sales Navigator prospecting
  3. Data enrichment tools

Prospecting - Reaching out to leads

  1. Cold outbound emailers such as Instantly or Woodpecker
  2. Warm outbound email platforms such as MailChimp
  3. Content Hub platforms to push inbound content campaigns

Analysis & Forecasting

  1. Revenue Intelligence to analyze calls, meetings & emails
  2. Sales Enablement platforms

Clay’s strength is currently in pulling data from CRM and from Data enrichment tools, and then pushing them to the systems that you will use to execute.

Typical Clay-Powered RevOps Workflow

Here I walk through how GTM teams can use Clay.

1. Target Identification

A Clay workflow begins with defining an ideal customer profile (ICP).

For example, a B2B SaaS company might target:

  • Technology startups
  • Series A to C funded companies
  • 50-500 employee size
  • Specific technology stack (e.g., cloud-native infrastructure)

2. Data Enrichment Process

Using Clay, the RevOps team follows a multi-step enrichment strategy:

  1. Initial Data Collection
    • Pull initial list from platforms like LinkedIn Sales Navigator
    • Import raw contact lists from existing databases
    • Use Clay’s integration capabilities to match and validate initial data points
  2. Enrichment Layer
    • Apply multiple data sources simultaneously
      • LinkedIn for professional details
      • Apollo.io for contact verification
      • Clearbit for company intelligence
      • Hunter.io for email validation
  3. Intelligent Filtering
    • Remove duplicate entries
    • Validate contact accuracy
    • Score leads based on predefined criteria

Practical Example: Enterprise Software Sales Workflow

Let’s consider a cloud security software company. Their GTM is oriented towards mid-market tech companies based out of East Coast. They are looking to target decision-makers amongst their ICPs

For their initial targeting, they apply the following filters:

  • Job Titles: CTO, VP of Security, Chief Information Security Officer
  • Company Size: 100-500 employees
  • Industry: Technology, Finance, Healthcare
  • Geographic Focus: East Coast, North America
    1. Enrichment - Clay automatically enriches each contact with:
  • Current job title and company
  • Professional email address
  • LinkedIn profile details
  • Company technology stack
  • Recent funding information
    1. Segmentation according to market/ product data - Segment leads based on:
    • Technology currently used
    • Recent funding rounds
    • Growth trajectory
    • Potential security pain points
      1. Automating workflows for prospecting - Create personalized outreach sequences
    • Route high-potential leads to specific sales representatives
    • Tag and categorize leads for targeted marketing campaigns

By creating a first version of your GTM strategy basis a simple ICP definition, Clay.com will help GTM teams get things done much faster than ever before.

Key Technology Integration Points

For Clay, integration with platform products becomes ever more critical. There are robust integrations with market leading solutions across the Mar-tech suite.

  • CRM Sync: Automatic updates to Salesforce/HubSpot
  • Marketing Automation: Seamless integration with tools like Marketo
  • Sales Engagement: Direct connection with Outreach.io or SalesLoft

Metrics Tracked

  1. Lead Conversion Percentage
  2. Data Accuracy Rate
  3. Email Deliverability
  4. Response Rates
  5. Sales Cycle Acceleration

The Impact that GTM teams can see with Clay

By implementing this workflow, companies typically see:

  • 35% improvement in lead quality
  • 25% reduction in manual data entry
  • 40% faster sales cycle
  • Significantly improved personalization capabilities

Pro Tips for RevOps Teams

Just like with any tool, it’s important to look at the metrics, and to see how impactful the approach is.

  1. For instance, you can continue to refine your ICP definition
  2. Regularly clean and update data sources, to see which works best for your use case
  3. Once you’ve identified your top data sources, it comes down to identifying the top enrichment workflows

Reviewing top data sources that can be used to enrich your data on Clay

  1. LinkedIn Data Sources

LinkedIn remains a powerhouse for professional data enrichment. Clay provides integrations that allow businesses to:

  • Extract detailed professional profiles
  • Gather current job titles and company information
  • Understand professional backgrounds and career trajectories
  • Validate contact information for key decision-makers
  1. Apollo.io

A comprehensive B2B data platform that offers:

  • Extensive company and contact databases
  • Real-time email and phone number verification
  • Detailed company firmographic data
  • Job role and department information
  • Technology stack insights
  1. Hunter.io

Specialized in email finding and verification:

  • Email address discovery across professional domains
  • Verification of email address validity
  • Domain-level email pattern identification
  • Professional email finding for specific roles within organizations
  1. Clearbit

A powerful data enrichment tool that provides:

  • Comprehensive company intelligence
  • Detailed firmographic and technographic data
  • Real-time company and contact information
  • API-driven enrichment for seamless integration
  • Insights into company size, industry, and technology usage
  1. ZoomInfo

An enterprise-grade data source offering:

  • Extensive B2B contact and company databases
  • Detailed organizational hierarchies
  • Intent data and buying signals
  • Comprehensive professional contact information
  • Global business intelligence
  1. Slack/GitHub Social Data

For tech and startup-focused businesses:

  • Professional activity tracking
  • Open-source contribution insights
  • Community engagement metrics
  • Professional network connections
  1. Domain-Specific Sources

Clay also supports niche and industry-specific data sources that can be particularly valuable:

  • Crunchbase for startup and funding information
  • ProductHunt for tech and product insights
  • Dribbble for design professional data
  • GitHub for technical talent identification

Choosing the Right Data Sources

When selecting enrichment sources in Clay, consider:

  • Your specific business needs
  • Target audience demographics
  • Industry vertical
  • Compliance and data privacy requirements
  • Budget constraints

Best Practices

  1. Combine multiple data sources for comprehensive insights
  2. Regularly validate and update your data
  3. Ensure GDPR and privacy compliance
  4. Use data enrichment strategically, not just for volume

Clay’s flexible ecosystem allows businesses to mix and match these data sources, creating powerful, customized enrichment workflows that drive smarter sales and marketing strategies.